Search

Search

Joël Saveuse leaves METRO GROUP

20 March 2012

Joël Saveuse, member of METRO AG's Management Board and CEO of the Real Group, will leave the company. On Monday evening, Saveuse and the company have mutually agreed that Saveuse will resign from his offices on 31 March 2012.

"The METRO GROUP and in particular Real owe a lot to Mr Saveuse. He contributed notably to get the hypermarket chain in Germany back on track. Under the leadership of Mr Saveuse, Real Germany was able to improve its performance since 2007 significantly", said Franz Markus Haniel, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of METRO AG. "At the same time, Mr Saveuse drove the division's international expansion. Moreover, he gave important impetus to the future direction of Metro Cash & Carry in Europe."

In the Management Board of METRO AG, CEO Olaf Koch will take full responsibility for Real. He will also take over existing supervisory board mandates of Saveuse. Didier Fleury, CEO Real International, will be heading the Real Group Committee, whilst Roland Neuwald will stay in charge of Real Germany.

Saveuse, of French descent, initially joined Metro in the mid 1980's; first as Managing Director of Metro Cash & Carry France and later in Germany. Following different placements at French retail companies, Saveuse returned as CEO of Real in 2007 and in this position was appointed to METRO AG's Management Board in 2008. In 2009 he took over responsibility for the procurement company, MGB Hong Kong, and the logistics division, MGL. In addition, he was CEO of Metro Cash & Carry Europe/MENA between April 2010 and December 2011 and since January 2012 he has once again focussed on his position as CEO of the Real Group.

METRO GROUP is one of the largest and most international retailing companies. In 2011 the Group reached sales of around € 67 billion. The company has a headcount of more than 280,000 employees and operates some 2,200 stores in 33 countries. The Group's performance is based on the strength of its sales brands which operate independently in their respective market segment: Metro/Makro Cash & Carry - the international leader in self-service wholesale, Real hypermarkets, Media Markt and Saturn - European market leader in consumer electronics retailing, and Galeria Kaufhof department stores.